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Real life Pokémon gym set to open in Japan next month
Despite the famous “Gotta catch ‘em all!” tagline, Pokémon trainers don’t spend every moment of their adventures traipsing through the underbrush searching for new Pocket Monster species. Part of the...
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Japanese lawyer: Making cosplay for others is copyright infringement
In about a week, Halloween, cosplayers‘ favorite holiday, will be upon us. Millions of people — increasingly including Japanese — will take to the streets in costume, and much of it will be cosplay....
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We visit Tomonoura, the scenic harbor town that inspired Studio Ghibli’s...
If you’ve seen Ponyo, Studio Ghibli’s adorable movie about a fish girl who wants to be human, then the above location may seem pretty familiar. That’s because it was taken in the port town of...
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Sweet high-school anime shows how learning kanji can be the key to getting a...
Kanji characters are one of the most fascinating, but also the most troublesome, aspects of the Japanese language—and that goes not just for foreign learners but also for Japanese natives. The Kanji...
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Look forward to 2016 with new anime Active Raid from the director of Code Geass!
More often than not, stories and franchises start as manga in Japan and, if they become popular enough, you will see them evolve into an anime, musical, or sometimes even a live-action versions. While...
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Get married in the name of the moon with official Sailor Moon marriage...
If you’ve finally met your real-life Princess Serenity or Prince Endymion and have decided to venture out together in holy matrimony, congratulations! Now it’s time to invest in a tiara, stock up on...
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Rice, rice baby! Strains of Japanese rice get turned into cute anime girls on...
Japan likes to think of the food it produces as being the highest-quality in the world, and that goes double for rice. As such, many bags of domestically grown rice are decorated with iconic Japanese...
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Anime huggy pillows “walk” down the red carpet at Tokyo International Film...
The Tokyo International Film Festival, as per its name, hosts luminaries of the movie world from around the globe. Kicking off the event is a gala ceremony in which guests walk down the red carpet to...
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Breaking Fujoshi: Twitter user tries to unlock the code to girls who grow up...
The fujoshi (“rotten girl”) subculture is well-established in Japan with its sizable population of girls and women who enjoy the past time of homoerotic fan art. Its members are often a contentious...
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Anime voice actress arrested for suspected cocaine possession, has name...
When it comes to celebrities and drug-use, Japan doesn’t have the same forgiving attitude that many other societies do. Last year, for example, when pop singer Aska was arrested on drug charges, the...
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Patlabor AV-98 Ingram anime mecha arrives in Niigata, residents welcome their...
For anyone who lives in Niigata or is planning on heading there in the next couple of days, please be sure to obey all the laws and regulations of the prefecture. It’s not that they have odd rules...
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Anime Contact lenses will give you the shimmering eyes of a manga heroine...
The first thing that many people notice about the eyes of anime characters is how big they are, but that’s not the only thing that makes those 2-D peepers special. Through the magic of Japanese...
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The latest work by Japan’s hottest anime studio…is on the new Toy Story...
I’ve actually never seen any of the Toy Story movies. I hear they’re entertaining and poignant, but my extremely busy lifestyle only leaves me so much time for watching cartoons, and I generally...
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Top violinist Ayako Ishikawa to release major label debut album with anime...
Although a number of Japanese music labels have been hesitant to embrace YouTube, over the last few years uploads from independent Japanese artists and personalities have reached higher numbers than...
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Don’t call it Boys’ Love! Japanese fujoshi finds a new term for her favorite...
The international anime fan community has adopted a number of Japanese loanwords for concepts that originated in Japan and don’t have succinct, ideal vocabulary equivalents in other languages....
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Can’t make it to the Rurouni Kenshin musical in Japan? Preview video gives a...
We recently took a look at the first photos of the upcoming Rurouni Kenshin stage musical cast in costume, and looking at the comments for that article, more than a few fans of the hit anime and manga...
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Yo-kai Watch’s Western debut is upon us, but have the Yokai already become...
We’ve been telling our fine readers for literally years now about Yo-kai Watch, the Pokémon-esque game/manga/anime series that’s full of adorable yet mischievous collectible yokai monsters. And now...
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Sailor Moon earns Guardian title with accessories that protect your...
Although everyone just calls it Sailor Moon, the official title of the anime and manga franchise is Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon, which translates out to Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon. A couple of years...
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Sailor Moon cloth masks are here to protect you from germs the magical girl way!
As we head into winter, you can spot more and more people out and about in Japan wearing cloth masks. The main reason is to prevent the spread of germs during cold and flu season, but recent research...
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Anime-style boys’ love comes to South Park with yaoi-themed episode
With its pudgy, simplistic character designs and sharp-edged humor dicing up current trends, American animated comedy South Park is about as different from anime as it can be in look and tone. But...
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